Things that are just wrong … but really, really funny

Remember my post about beer-y things that are just flat-out inappropriate for kids?

Our first stop during the latest Portland bicycling brewpub tour (see my most recent post below, or go here) was this new place called Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB). Now, from my parent perspective, any restaurant that wants my business needs to have a kids' menu, but … a "Lil' Brewers' Menu"?!? Dude. Seriously. (Click on the top image.)

I thought that was hilarious enough, but click now on the second image and check out the word search puzzle. I keep hearing Mr. Rogers' voice saying, "Can you say mash tun, boys and girls?"

Bill joins the beer-blogging fray

Former roommate (and despite that, he still considers me a good friend) Bill has finally made good on his promise to start his own beer blog. And he has the beer-lover's ultimate vantage point, as he lives in Beervana, aka Portland, Oregon. In the photo, that's Bill in the red T-shirt with me (center) and another former roomie (and former Portlander) Todd at the Oregon Brewers Festival this summer. Bill's guest-blog series on fresh-hop beers for me was well received, so I expect you'll like his work on his site.

I struggled with whether to list Bill under "Drinking Buddies" or "Other Beer Blogs," because he's been the former for a long, long time, but I decided that since he apparently plans to focus on beer, I'll list him as the latter. But rest assured, he's not just another beer blogger to me.

Portland, part 3 of 3

I don't think this NaBloPoMo exercise is having the intended effect. Gawd, I'm sick of blogging now. But dammit, except for Thanksgiving Day, I've made it this far, so I might as well slog on. Plus, it will finally force me to finish my Portland stories. Long, long after I should have. I'll touch on just three highlights: A non-brewpub, and some cool places I found outside of Portland.

The non-brewpub was a really weird little place. It was called La Bodega, not far from Todd's house – walking distance, almost – and not to be confused with the Austin La Bodega, a salsa-dance bar. This place was ostensibly a bar, but yet it wasn't. It was more like a beer boutique. The waiter/bartender gave very personal service, bringing out whichever bottle of fancy-pants beer you desired – and they had the fanciest – and people relaxed around couches in the dimly lit place. No loud music, no big crowds. It almost had the feel of a coffeehouse. I expected a poetry reading to break out. Perhaps a wine tasting room is a good analogy. Good beer, but I wasn't quite certain what to make of the place.

On another day, we drove up Mt. Hood. Yes, there was snow up on the mountain, even in mid-summer. We wanted to take the kids on a ride up the ski lift, but alas! – the lift closed about 30 minutes before we arrived. I wasn't sure how to console the kids – predictably, the older girl started going into meltdown mode (she is only in the last few weeks learning how to cope with disappointment, and still hasn't perfected the skill) – but I darn sure knew how to console myself. With a beer. And yes, Oregon even has brewpubs on its mountains. About halfway back down, we pulled into the Ice Axe Grill in Government Camp. They call themselves "the brewery with altitude," har, har. Once again, my procrastination is making it hard for me to remember what I had, but I remember liking it. Problem is, one beer was just okay, and the other was great, and I can't remember which was which. But I'm pretty sure I had the Hogsback Oatmeal Stout and the Ice Axe India Pale Ale. One of them was cask-conditioned – I want to say the IPA. Definitely stop in if you visit Mount Hood, which you should.

But possibly the most magnificent day of our trip – even edging out Bill's bicycling tour of Portland's brewpubs and the Oregon Brewers Festival, but only barely – was our trip to the coast. The Pacific coast is just godawful beautiful, mountains just shooting straight up out of the ocean. At Pacific City, the big girl and I climbed the biggest sand dune I've ever seen, I jumped in frigid water that made Barton Springs seem toasty, and we all marveled over a multitude of sea life stuck to the rocks, various anemones and starfish that were just fascinating.

And once it was over, we walked over to the Pelican Pub & Brewery (pictured above) for their wonderful beer and magnificent, very fresh seafood. I had some fried oysters that were as big as my head and tasted divine. I've never seen oysters like this. I didn't even know nature made them that big. Jeez, I have no idea what I drank now – either the IPA or the Scottish ale, or maybe both. And I took home a bottle of the 2005 Bridal Ale, a "French country ale," I guess a take on the Belgian saison. Bill and I killed it off the next night back at his house. I left the coast with a warm glow (despite the chilly Northwestern air), filled with good beer, hot seafood, and a great memory of time well spent with my kids. Watching the sun go down into the Pacific is a rare treat.

There is more I could tell of Portland – I can think now of at several worthy places and beers I haven't mentioned: Roots, or the Lucky Labrador (a bar where you can take your dog, and man, their IPAs – they had more than one – and barleywine were stunning), or John's Marketplace, the most magnificent beer store I've seen in my life in one place (more than 800 beers!). Seriously, John's made Grape Vine Market and Spec's look like chumps. But I'm just getting too removed from it all now. The memory's getting foggy, and I'm moving on to new adventures. If you want tales of Portland, you should buy some plane tickets and go create your own. I hope you had as much fun as I did. Thanks to my good friends who made what would have been a good trip anyway into a magnificent one.

Fresh Hops, Final Installment

Our "fresh hops" correspondent in Portland sends his final report, putting my own blogging to shame. Excellent job! Read on:

Well, it looked like my mission had finally petered out. Monday was rather lame, I tried different presentations of beers I had already had. The Full Sail Lupulin on CO² instead of cask; finally a reasonable quantity of Bridgeport Hop Harvest, from a bottle. Full Sail: excellent, though not as much so as the cask variety; Bridgeport: a fine beer, but doesn't quench my thirst for that grassy fresh-hop flavor.

Tuesday, fighting the smoke at the Horsebrass, got to taste Ninkasi's Ceridwen Harvest Lager. Now, Ninkasi beers are usually musclebound bruisers that make you beg for more punishment. A light lager is a little out of character for them. The waitress tried to steer me away from it, she said, "It's like the best Budweiser you ever had". Simile is a great way to describe things, and I think she nailed it. Very well done, but why the hell would you waste your freshly harvested hops on a light lager?

Wednesday, I can't even claim to be on track any more. The best I could do was a few cask Lupulins at Higgins before the George Jones concert. [Ed. note: GEORGE JONES?!? Kick ass!]

Thursday, it looks like Monday all over again. The Full Sail Pilsener Room, trying beers on tap that I already had in bottles: Deschutes Hop Trip and Hales O'Brien's Harvest Ale (the menu calls it a Fresh Hop ESB). I was prepared to gloss over Monday's lapse, and pretend like Wednesday never happened, but this looks like the final nail in the coffin. Fortunately, the bartender asked me which one was better, and when I pointed at the Lupulin cask handle, he told me that the Lupulin cask had been replaced with a Harvest beer from Hopworks.

Hark, are those angels singing to me? The quest is alive for one more day! Hopworks is a Southeast brewpub that hasn't even opened yet; a few places have their IPA, but I couldn't believe it when he pumped out a reddish-orange pint of their fresh hop beer. This is an awesome beer — I'd say it bridges the gap between the sweeter, lighter beers I crave each year, and the people who try to make a strong, bitter harvest ale. It's got the flavor, it's got the color, plus a little bit of extra bitterness.

Then, as the icing on the cake, he gave me a tiny taste of Bridgeport's "firkin-style" Harvest Ale. The night before, the Bridgeport people had been in and served it out of a barrel just by sticking a nozzle in and letting gravity do the work, no pumping or pressure. The bartender saved a pint overnight, so it was pretty flat, but it was awesome. I don't know if the firkins are from a different batch than the rest of Bridgeport's Hop Harvest, but this was sweeter and with more fresh flavor than what I tried on tap or from a bottle.

Friday I was able to try Killer Green from a new Hood River brewery, Double Mountain. This was an awesome beer in the same vein as the Hopworks from Thursday, with the fresh flavor but on the bitter side. Smooth and almost creamy.

Saturday I crossed the finish line for my marathon, by attending the Fresh Hop Tastival at McMenamin's Edgefield. Sadly, a number of the beers that were listed on Oregon Live were not at the festival: nothing from Ninkasi, Amnesia, Standing Stone, Mia and Pia's, Raccoon Lodge, or Calapooia; none of the alternate beers from Deschutes or Lucky Lab. What the hell, that's a lot of gaps! Still, I got to try 6 or 7 beers that I hadn't had yet. Golden Valley's beer was in the acceptable range. Pelican's Elemental Ale was really good, but the fresh hop flavor got submerged by all the other flavor and nutrition — the beer was thick and a completely opaque light-gold color. The only one I hadn't tried that lit a fire under me was from Mt. Hood Brewing, they had the style down.

Final verdict: My three favorites this year are Full Sail's Lupulin Ale, Deschutes Hop Trip, and whatever Hopworks calls theirs. Runners up are Double Mountain, Rogue Hop Heaven, and Mt. Hood. Excellent beers that I fault a little for lacking or hiding the green hop taste: New Old Lompoc's Harvest Man, Hale's O'Brien's Harvest Ale, Bridgeport's Hop Harvest, Pelican's Elemental Ale.

I feel very lame to be blogging on someone else's blog, but thanks for the soapbox, Lee. Maybe this will motivate me to take the slightly less lame action of starting my own blog. [Lee says: You're welcome to do a guest spot here any time!]

Portland Recap, Chapter 2

Okay, by god, time for me to finally make some progress on recounting my magnificent Portland vacation back in July-August. (Part 1 was here.)

So back when Bill and I lived together here in Austin, it was he who got me into bicycling. Having grown up in a small town, where a car is a matter survival, I couldn't imagine actually getting around a big city on human power. Sure, I was a good environmentalist, but to me, alternative transportation meant taking the bus. And I'm still a mass-transit believer, but he showed me that, with a little practice, you can get around a city just fine on a bike.

And that's especially true in Portland. God bless Austin, it's trying to be bike-friendly, but it's still a good decade behind Portland. Getting around that city is so easy that, by god, you can even do it when you've been drinking beer — as Bill was determined to prove. (My joke about Portland: You can't swing a dead cat in that town without knocking someone off their bicycle, and you can't swing a dead bicyclist without knocking a microbrew out of someone's hand.) He hopped on his bike, he loaned one out to me, and Todd and Bill's next-door neighbor hopped on theirs, and we set off on the Bicycling Tour of Portland's Brewpubs (not an official event — I just like the way it looks in all caps).

We headed off a surprisingly easy two miles east to the McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant that sits on the lovely Willamette River, just a little ways down from the park where we had enjoyed the Oregon Brewers Festival the day before. No, M&S is not a brewpub, but apparently they've worked out some kind of a deal with Full Sail, and so we settled into a tasty plate of calamari and I think I had a cask-conditioned IPA in front of me. A rare treat in Austin, cask-conditioned ales are de rigeur in Portland – I think every place I went had one. Now that's some full-scale urban beer snobbery – when cask-conditioned ales are expected. Wow.

Then we headed three miles north – again, amazingly easy, despite cutting right through the heart of Portland. The city's bicycling lanes are so well-defined and uninterrupted that at no point, despite traffic all around us, did I ever feel unsafe. Man, I love this town. Our new destination was the Widmer Brothers Gasthaus, where we sat down and enjoyed the pleasantly sunny weather (I swear it never got above 84, while it was sweltering back home in Austin) outside on their sidewalk tables. I think I tried their summer seasonal (damn me for not writing this down two months ago!). Yes, the obvious urge was to have the Broken Halo IPA, one of my favorites, but why taste something that I can get back in Austin? Unfortunately, I seem to remember my adventurousness letting me down a bit; I wasn't super-impressed. We also tried some sort of cherry beer, maybe a lambic, but we all agreed its sourness was a bit much.

Off again, up an ungodly steep hill (okay, Bill was a great tour guide, but not perfect). We worked our way over to Laurelwood Pizza Company. They had a mighty tasty sampler tray as well as fine artichoke dip. And they had a play area for the kids — always a brilliant idea to combine amenities for the kids with beer. This type of forethought is what makes me a loyal customer of Brentwood Tavern and Phil's Ice House/Amy Ice Cream here in Austin. I seem to remember liking everything Laurelwood had on tap.

From there, we headed up some more stiff hills so that we could take up a game of darts at the Horse Brass, a beautifully authentic British-style pub – think the Draught House, only about four times bigger. I got my butt kicked at darts, but I consoled myself with something hoppy. In fact, I think the really hoppy brew was actually Bill's, but I liked it better than what I ordered, so I mooched off his.

Sadly, that ended our pedaling tour. (But boy, wouldn't the folks at New Belgium have been proud of me!) My wife has been suffering from some kind of malady that causes dizziness, and a phone call from her cut short our travels, despite the fact that Bill had mapped out two other stops for us. (Thankfully, I still had another day to squeeze in more bars.)

I have to say, other than the obligatory (day I got married, day my older daughter was born, day my younger daughter was born), this rated as one of the five greatest days of my life. A wonderful bike ride, great beer, and even better friends — how could it get any better than that? Thanks for organizing, Bill!

Fresh Hops, Chapter 3

More from our "Fresh Hops" correspondent in Portland:

My fresh hop streak is continuing, a new one each day, though I did have to resort to bottled beer a couple of times.  That's OK, one of the bottles was a big winner, my second-favorite harvest beer this year.

Wednesday I boldly ventured into the chain brewpub, Rock Bottom. The Hop Harvest beer there was drinkable, within the range of what I'm looking for. I almost had to report that their Hop Harvest was way off the mark, just a normal IPA, because when I asked for the fresh-hopbeer, I was served just a normal IPA. I guess there aren't enough beer geeks to fill all the wait-staff positions at big corporate operations.

Thursday I finally broke down and had to experiment with a bottle from Hale's Brewing in Seattle, their O'Brien's Harvest Ale. Hale's usually has great stuff, and this was no exception. Lots of flavor — what do I taste there, charbroiled steak? No, I guess it's just a pretty dark, caramely malt, maybe some yeast flavor, and there just on top is the flowery fresh-hop.  Very tasty, and I'll have it again, but this time of year I like the green hops to be the star of the show, not a supporting actor.

Friday I grabbed a Geschwills Golden Ale at the Widmer Gasthaus. Uh oh, "golden ale," isn't that secret code for "if you don't like beer, you'll be able to choke this one down"?  This was pretty bland, I didn't really get much of the fresh hop aroma. I was hoping for better.

Saturday was Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale. It's in 6-packs, but I tried it on tap. A little bit of hop bitterness, but none of the exciting greenness I wanted. Put it in the same category as Widmer.

Hmmm … sounds like things are tapering off, have I already been through all the good ones? Luckily, Sunday's experiment restored my faith in the fresh-hop spirits.  A bottle again, but a good one, 22 ounces of Deschutes' Hop Trip. Of everything so far, this is second only to Full Sail in my opinion for nailing the style. Honey sweet, fresh flowery hops, Hop Trip was what I was looking for.

I'm going to try desperately to keep the streak going for 5 more days, then Saturday there is a "Fresh Hop Tastival" that will be the icing on the cake.

More on "Fresh Hop" Beers

More guest blogging from my Portland pal (see earlier post):

Saturday evening the missus and I were downtown and happened into the bar at Higgins, and found that their cask beer was Full Sail's fresh hop ale — guessing it's the one they call Lupulin Ale.  Perfect.  This is the flavor I was looking for:  a little sweet, hoppy and flowery with a little extra green flavor.  A little flat and not-too-cold from the cask, just beautiful.  The best one I've had this year, and I'll have to hit it a few more times before I'm satisfied.

Sunday I convinced the neighbors to join me at the Lucky Lab, where they have The Mutt on tap, named after the 4 different varieties of fresh hops.  It was interesting, a little bit tart like a rye or even some wheat beers, but we found it disappointing.  Not much flavor, so you had to concentrate really hard to pick up the fresh hop aroma.  I notice they have a couple other varieties they will show at the festival, so I'm holding out hope that one of those will redeem the Lab.

Monday I pounced on the New Old Lompoc and was surprised to find that they were pouring two different fresh hop beers.  The Star of India IPA was a winner — strong hops, but with that nice grassy flavor.  The other one was a dark, strong (7.8%) beer called Harvest Man, which they described as an Alt.  It was delicious, especially after it warmed up a little, but I felt like the fresh hops were wasted on such a big beer. There was just so much to it, that you wouldn't notice the herbal notes unless you already knew they were there.  As Joe Walsh said, I can't complain but sometimes I still do.

Tuesday we went for lunch to the Laurelwood on the east side, and tried their fresh hop Extra Pale.  Good stuff, but didn't have the green herbal flavor I was looking for.  Might have been because it had a ton of hops in it; if you're a hop-head you won't be disappointed to drink one.  It seemed similar to Bridgeport's offering -- high quality but lacking a little pizazz.

Speaking of Bridgeport, I really have to sit down with a pint of theirs, since my small sample didn't do it justice.  But I was thwarted Friday evening when I tried to pick up a half-gallon of the Bridgeport fresh hop ale at the Bridgeport pub on Hawthorne.  A gal who looked like she might be the pub manager said their "policy" is to only fill their own growlers (I had an unmarked mason jar).  Stupid policy — here's a guy who wants to spend $10 and tip the bartender, and you don't even have to wash a glass or wipe a table.  They lost more than $10 business on that one, because I'll skip a few lunches after that.

I'll see if I can keep my streak going a little longer -- that's 8 different fresh-hop beers in 7 days.  If I run out of new ones to try, I can always drink up more Full Sail.

Guest Blogging From Portland

No, this is not part 2 of my Portland recap, but this e-mail I got from a friend in Portland was just so well-written that I had to post it:

Well, it's starting to rain again, so I guess we'll see less sun for the next, oh, NINE months.

But this time of year has its reward:  fresh hop beers.  I hadn't heard of such a thing when we first got here, but now I await it eagerly every fall.  The idea is, the brewer goes out to some farmer's place and gets some hops right after they're harvested, and throws them into the beer the very same day.  It's a distinctively different taste, you get the nice bitter hop flavor, but also something herbal or vegetable-y on top of that.

I got caught off guard this year, Roots was the first place I saw it, Tuesday night when Dave and I headed over there for some darts.  Their "Hop-o-pottamus" (what a name) was very much in character, it was one of their hearty, strong ales, it might remind you of Roots Red.  Good stuff.

The next day Bridgeport was scheduled to release their "Hop Harvest," so I took a chance and walked over there for lunch.  They weren't going to serve it until 4, but luckily I overheard one of the employees talking about it to someone, and when I pestered him about it he took me upstairs and gave me a small sample.  From that sample, my impression was that it was very competently done, but maybe not quite as tasty as what they had last year.  They took a chance this year, and made a stronger (7%) ale, almost an IPA.  I'll give it another chance and see if it tastes better in a bigger glass.  Lee, you might look around Austin for this, they're selling some in 22 oz. bottles for the first time.

Well, since I had two days in a row of fresh hop beers, I went to Laurelwood's NW location yesterday (Thursday) to see if they had their version yet, but was disappointed.  Apparently they do have it on the eastside.

Today I headed over to the Rogue brewpub for lunch, and they had just tapped their "Hop Heaven".  This was much more classic than Bridgeport's, and I'll probably try to soak up more of it while it lasts.  Maybe you can even get bottles of this outside Oregon?

So, to paraphrase Meatloaf, 3 out of 4 ain't bad.  Next week I'll pop into the New Old Lompoc to check theirs out (that's the same brewery as Hedge House), and Lucky Lab should have theirs pretty soon.  I may even break down and go to Rock Bottom, since they have one on tap right now. Next month there is a mini-festival of fresh hop beers at the McMenamin's in Troutdale, I'll see if I can scare up a posse for that. Deschutes (Bend, OR) makes one called "Hop Trip" every year, with any luck I'll find that on tap somewhere.

Portland, part 1: Oregon Brewers Festival

Well, darnit, like I always do, I've wasted too much time after a great event to blog about it. Jeez, it's been almost two months. Now I've probably forgotten a lot of the great stuff. Ah well, I'll drink this bottle of Pranqster and try to reassemble my memories of a really wonderful vacation.

Man, there is so much to like about Portland. If I've ever been tempted to leave Austin, this might be the city that does it. From the political angle, they are doing so much that I want Austin to embrace – encouraging smart, mixed-use development downtown instead of building more highways out to sprawling suburbs, building a first-rate mass transit system, and making the city as friendly as possible toward bicycling. Climate-wise, it was such a refreshing break from Texas – the hottest it ever got was 84. And get this: There are no bugs. Seriously. Bill and Carla would leave their windows open all day and night, with no screens. If you tried to do that in Austin, you'd be completely drained of blood by sunrise. (For more on the nondrinking aspect of our trip, consult M'Lady's blog.)

And then, of course, there was the beer. My god, was there beer. Was it my imagination, or was there really a brewpub on every single block?

The trip started off not at a brewpub, but at the 20th Annual Oregon Brewers Festival. You're not going to believe this, but as much as I love the brew, this was my very first beer festival. Man, walking in for the first time was overwhelming – there was just so much from which to choose. I was paralyzed with indecision. I only had about two hours, enough tokens for about 20 samples, and 72 possibilities. Eventually, however, I settled into a groove.

Very quickly, I started trending in an IPA-ish direction. I discovered during the trip that Portlanders love their IPAs. Maybe it's because the hops are so fresh up there, but it seemed like every place I went had one. So the standards were pretty high, and not just any old IPA would do. Case in point was Hopworks Urban's (Portland) Organic IPA, which was merely average. And Ram Restaurant and Brewery (Salem, Ore.) had a double IPA — normally a sure winner with me — that let me down. Some fruit notes, but not a lot going on flavor-wise.

Much better was the double IPA from Standing Stone (Ashland, Ore., and not to be confused with California's Stone Brewery). This wonderful hop overload quickly convinced me that I wanted a full mug instead of a mere three-ounce sample (samples cost one token, full mugs cost four). I figured that was as good as it was going to get, but I was wrong. My friends kept telling that I absolutely had to try Russian River's (Santa Rosa, Calif.) Pliny the Elder, also a double IPA, so I finally grabbed some near the end. It was even better than Standing Stone. It tasted both sweet and bitter simultaneously (um, perhaps "bittersweet" is the word I'm looking for here, duh) and had an absolutely magnificent nose. Another full mug was called for, and things got a bit foggy at that point.

There were more than IPAs, of course. Bison Brewing (Berkeley, Calif.) offered up a tasty Organic Chocolate Stout. I'm normally a tad leery of chocolate stouts, because too often the chocolate is overdone, but I seem to recall this having a nice balance, with tasty coffee notes as well. Grand Teton's (Victor, Idaho) Bitch Creek ESB was a rich, full-bodied brew. Sprecher (Glendale, Wisc.) surprised me with a mai bock, or "blonde bock," a style I'm unfamiliar with. It didn't look particularly blonde, and it was not what I expect from a bock — definitely lighter, not with the typical malt punch. Tasty, though.

And of course my taste for Belgians was humored: Flying Fish (Cherry Hill, N.J.) entered a Bourbon Barrel Abbey Dubbel; I vaguely remember it now, but my notes say "weird, but good." Terminal Gravity (Enterprise, Ore.) had a trippel that disappointingly had no flavor (maybe that's why the program described it as "a taste that's hard to define.") Max's Fanno Creek Brew Pub (Tigard, Ore.) had a nice Saison Golden, a style I've really warmed up to. That didn't compare, though, to those wicked good brewers at Stone Brewing (Escondido, Calif.), makers of several things I love including a great IPA and the wonderfully named Arrogant Bastard. This time, their entry was a saison named Stone 07/07/07 Vertical Epic. My notes say "OMFG." I seem to remember rushing back to our camp and demanding that everyone try some. It's the best saison I've ever had.

You know what? This post has rambled on for too long, and my experience as a professional writer is that people quit reading after a certain point. So we'll call this "Part 1" — stay tuned for future installments soon.

No, seriously.

Really: I swear, swear, swear I will do my full-length write-up of my magnificent trip to Portland very soon, but I haven't had time the past two weeks because I've been adjusting to my new job as a staff writer for the Chronicle. In the meantime, you'll just have to satisfy yourself with this abbreviated synopsis that I did for our food section.

And damn, could I look any goofier in that photo? (Wait, don't answer that.)

Portland International Beer Festival reviewed

Another guest reviewer: Bill C, who lives in Portland (see photo below). This is completely unedited, so I hope it's readable. Todd M (the other guy in the pic) is supposed to send his own review sometime. And I'm happy to say I'll join both of them on vacation soon for some northwest beer imbibing.


The Lagavulin-aged barleywine was what I was most excited to try, but it
was disappointing. The big surprise for me was how good the dark
Norwegian beers were.

The best:

#1 Eel River Triple Exultation (Old Ale)
#2 De Proef La Grande Blanche (Imperial Wit)
#3 Haand Bryggeri Dark Force (Imperial Stout)

Other excellent beers:
Walking Man Mystery #2 -- Good, chocolaty and hoppy
Walking Man Mystery #1 -- IIPA, very good
Ninkasi Double IPA -- Hell yeah
Allagash Curieux -- very very good
Nogne-O Imperial Stout -- very very good

Still really good:
Terminal Gravity Triple -- very nice
Cascade Brewing Temptor -- good stuff
Haand Bryggeri Norwegian Wood -- very good, like a rauchbier
Eisenbahn Lust -- very good
Blaugies Saison d'Epeautre -- really good like Trippel Karmelit
Spezial Rauchbier -- mild and good
Speakeasy Double Daddy -- good stuff
Aecht Schlenkerla Helles -- quite good, smoky
Glazen Toren Jan de Lichte -- not as good as La Grande Blanche
Big Sky Ivan the Terrible -- very good

Still good:
De Proef K-O -- very nice
De La Senne Stouterik -- good, Guinness-like
Harviestouns Old Engine Oil -- not bad
Lindemans Pomme -- good green apple, better than Zoetzuur
De Proef Saison Imperial -- very nice
De Proef Brewer's Reserve -- pretty good
Mahr's Weissbock -- esthery, OK
Allagash Reserve Tripel -- good

Disappointing:
JW Lees Harvest Lagavulin -- sweet, flat
Super Baladin -- better than French beer
Uerige Doppelsticke -- sweet, not long
EKU 28 -- sweet
De Ranke Kriek -- sweet, tart
JW Lees Harvest (draft) -- less good than the aged one
Isle of Skye Wee Beast -- not heavy enough
De Proef Zoetzuur -- too sour, green apple
Flyer Tuck -- eh
Sick Duck -- nah
Alvinne Gaspar -- not very long for so bitter

Portland International Beer Festival

Bill C and Todd M, both residents of Portland, Ore., these past few years, have been drinking might tasty beers brewed by furriners this past weekend. Todd sent me a review of sorts, but it's in graph form, so I'll need some time to figure out how to get it onto Blogger, or else I'll have to do some transcribing. In the meantime, here's a pic of the two of them drunkenly proclaiming their love for one another: